By WALE AKINYEMI

More by this Author

A reader, responding to last week’s column about the Chesterton fence and managing change, asked: “How do you know when to start the change and to what extent can you move or repair the fence?

I believe the key thing here is objectivity. The ability to be objective is one of the most difficult things in leadership, especially when it comes to accepting that your predecessor had a good reason for putting up the fence even if you do not like each other. This is what leads to greatness and to continuity.

Objectivity makes you look at the big picture and the greater good. objectivity makes you accept a superior idea to yours even if it came from someone junior or someone you do not particularly like. Objectivity makes you commend a great move by your opponent and celebrate his or her wins.

Read: AKINYEMI: Change at a time can be exciting, yet counter-productive

Objectivity does not come easy. It is not the natural position of man to be objective. It has to be learned and trained in. Let’s take a sports tournament like the World Cup. We all rally behind our own. When our country is eliminated, we stick with the African teams until the last one is eliminated. This is ok in sports but unfortunately, we don’t stop there.

We elect tribes over merit, and we appoint tribes over competence. We believe that a fool from my tribe is better than a genius from your tribe.

This provides the perfect environment for destroying the fence regardless of why it was put there. So, how do we overcome this? Practice makes perfect. Objectivity must be practised.

It is one of the stronger attributes exhibited by great leaders. It is the ability to override your emotions based on facts and the greater good. It is the ability to support something that your emotions reject. It is the ability to make decisions that run contrary to your deepest desires because it is the right thing to do, and it serves the greater good.

Read: AKINYEMI: Impact is doing what’s right, leaving a legacy

The 41st President of the US, George Herbert Walker Bush, left a very moving letter for number 42, Bill Clinton.

“Dear Bill, When I walked into this office just now, I felt the same sense of wonder and respect that I felt four years ago. I know you will feel that, too. I wish you great happiness here, ‘and he ended it with “You will be our president when you read this note. I wish you well. I wish your family well. Your success now is our country’s success. I am rooting hard for you.”

How proud he must have been when his son, George W Bush took over from Bill Clinton eight years later to become the 43rd president of the US!

So, to become objective where the fence is concerned, we must remind ourselves that the fence was not put up by a nobody. It was put up by someone who had some level of authority and not a none-entity. We must try to see what they saw before we totally dismiss it.

Read: AKINYEMI: Surveil yourself and workplace to gain an edge

The key word in becoming objective is perspective. Without understanding the other person’s perspective we simply cannot be objective. This is why Steven Covey wrote that we must seek first to understand than to be understood.

Without this understanding, you might find yourself destroying the wall due to lack of objectivity and emotions only to have to rebuild it when you discover that it indeed, was the wall that kept you safe! No matter how much you try to spin it, at this point it will be glaring that you had to eat humble pie.

It might also serve you well to remember that a day will come, when there is a possibility that the fences you build will be uprooted. Karma is wicked, so tread intelligently.

Wale Akinyemi is the founder of the Street University. Email: [email protected]